This invention relates to a device for forming separated rows of green bricks, particularly rigidly pressed green bricks, wherein there is a base accepting a compact layer of abutting crossrows of green bricks, and a device for separating the crossrows of the green bricks so that they form separate rows spaced from one another at predetermined distances. Such a device is disclosed, for example in German DT-PS No. 2,312,946 or DT-PS No. 1,281,637. The devices should be capable of transferring to firing carriages and arranging into firing arrays suitable for firing not only dried green bricks but also dry-pressed green bricks which still contain some moisture. Such devices should be capable to transforming compact and abutting rows into interrupted or separated rows with distances between the crossrows. These known devices, however, are not capable of forming distance-rows or separated rows out of campact or abutting rows because the moisture contained in the green bricks causes the green bricks, which abut one another in the compact rows, to stick together and thereby prevent attempts to separate them.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a device for the formation of an interrupted or separated rows of green bricks so that it is possible to interrupt or separate rows consisting of rigidly pressed green bricks which still contain some moisture.
This objective is achieved according to the invention by positioning above the compact row a separating means, having a separating member extending over the whole width of the row and which may be lifted and lowered and which holds the green bricks in the individual crossrows.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the separating member is mounted on a carriage and the carriage is movably disposed upon a track which is positioned above the rows of bricks, the track guiding the carriage as the latter moves to and fro according to the process of separating the green bricks.
The achievement according to the invention now permits the formation of separated rows of rigidly pressed green bricks, because the green bricks are now held in their individual crossrows and are separated from the consecutive crossrows.
Other features which are considered characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described in relationship to specific embodiments, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.